Bottleneck Blog | Oil | Los Angeles Times

Obama: No more gas from Middle East in 10 years

Sen. Barack Obama, Thursday night in Denver:

"And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East."

If you're wondering what that means exactly, this chart from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows the sources of oil used by the United States. The EIA also says:

"The United States consumes about 21 million barrels (882 million gallons) of petroleum products each day, almost half in the form of gasoline used in over 210 million motor vehicles traveling over 7 billion miles per day."

Another breakdown by the EIA, shows that the U.S. is importing about 2.1 million barrels of oil from the Persian Gulf each day. So, if Obama is elected, the U.S. has a decade to find a lot of that oil somewhere else, reduce its oil use and/or find other ways to power our cars -- presumably without doing too much harm to our environment.

(Correction: an earlier version of this post said the U.S. was using about 3.8 million barrels of oil per day from the Persian Gulf.)

Obama, in his speech, attacked Sen. John McCain for perpetuating the nation's oil addiction. McCain, too, has called for reducing the nation's dependency on foreign oil and has called for increased drilling here, as well as pushing for cleaner cars and alternative fuels.

Obama also said this last night:

"Now is the time to end this addiction and to understand that drilling is a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution, not even close.

"As president, as president, I will tap our natural gas reserves, invest in clean coal technology, and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. I'll help our auto companies retool, so that the fuel-efficient cars of the future are built right here in America.

"I'll make it easier for the American people to afford these new cars.

"And I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy -- wind power, and solar power and the next generation of biofuels -- an investment that will lead to new industries and 5 million new jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced."

McCain, obviously, gets his turn next week at the Republican convention. Just to make things more interesting, he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate this morning and it's fair to say that Alaska knows a thing or two about oil.

Do you think America can really end its addiction to Middle East oil, Bottleneckers? What do you think the next decade will look like when it comes to use of cars? Will auto manufacturers get serious about fuel efficiency? Will we all be riding scooters and bikes? Hit the comment board please.

-- Steve Hymon